High Tea at the Ritz Carlton!

The Ritz Carlton in Riyadh is this huge beautiful monstrosity of a building by the Diplomatic Quarters, which I have been passing and dreaming about since arriving here to Riyadh.  It just only opened two or three months ago.  We heard it was beautiful and that they serve high tea.  Being the fancy Riyadh ladies that we are (uh hmmm), we went to their high tea this past Saturday (which is the first day of the work week in Saudi Arabia).  This place is gorgeous!!  So very sparkly and dazzling.  Kind of what we had thought Saudi Arabia would be like before arriving.  Something you would find in Dubai. 

So anyways we were sitting having our tea, crumpets, and clotted cream and we noticed there were a lot of people around, well men, que music, “this is a man’s world”….  Anyways and some had tv cameras.  Kelsey, my Canadian roommate bumped into a Canadian Senator by the bathroom who said his wife, a national Senator was there for the Speakers G20 Conference!  How very exciting.  Just as we were thinking this was a big deal and talking about how we wondered if our friend Yavuz, Turkish diplomat was there, he walked by with the Turkish speaker of the house and was being photographed!  How very exciting.  I feel like this is a place where one should be reserved and act like someone who belongs there….but….I was so excited I was jumping up and down frantically waving my arms at him….good thing he nor anyone else really notice before I got a hold of myself!  He came over and confirmed that this was the G20, and how excited we all became!  Oh diplomacy at work!  I kept joking about how I wanted a pass to get into the conference, and what should appear, but my very own pass!!!  I sat in on the conference!!  EEKKSS!  Yes I was trying really hard to act like I belonged, but really I was just a giggly girl.  So this speakers conference was the G20, talking about the economic status of the world.  I listened to the head of the UN parliament speak about how he was grateful for the opportunity for a new outlet for discussion on the global economy as in the speakers getting together this time instead.  And then the speaker from Brazil spoke and I got to use the translator head phones!  Yay!   Meanwhile, Kelsey was interviewed by an Arab TV program about her experiences in Riyadh and asked how she enjoyed the Saudi culture, etc, etc.  This was practice at speaking in a diplomatic way!  Later we were asked to be interviewed for a French radio station, but we declined, since we don’t know the language.  Once we thought things were calming down and we were about ready to leave there was a huge sandstorm outside, day turned to night it was so sandy!!  And the roads were closed.  Then it started to rain, and people were really scared of going out in the weather.  Rain here is like a big snow storm in Louisiana!  So we were ‘forced’ to stay at the Ritz, what a tough life!  We put our feet up and enjoyed the glitz some more.  We met all the representatives from Canada.  They were very friendly talking about the day to day of a senator and special interests that they are involved with.  When they asked us about why we were here in Riyadh, somehow all four of us turned into 17 year old giggly school girls, star struck maybe.  Oh also I met a member of the Shira Council (the governing body of Saudi Arabia) because he heard I was from Oregon and he had spent several years there for education and has sons/nephews still there at Lewis and Clark, Reed College, and so on.  Small world.  He gave me his business card, maybe I should get in touch with him about what I think about women’s rights in the kingdom!  Maybe after I’m safely back in my mother country!

So the diplomatic fun does not stop here.  Since Yavuz is good friends with the ambassador of Kuwait, he got us into the Kuwaiti National Day Dinner, also at the Ritz, this past Monday evening.  We went since it was going to be a delicious meal and so we could check out the happenings at such an event.  It seemed to be the fancy who’s who of Riyadh socialite society.  This was a womens only event.  This is kind of how things are in Riyadh.  Everything is separate.  No mingling of opposite sexes, because let’s be honest, how could unrelated males and females possibly function in each other’s presence!  But now at least we know what is underneath an abaya and niqab!  Glitz and glamour!  These ladies were dressed to the nines, their hair was professionally done, their eyebrows were recently done, arab style.  Good thing we three ladies broke out the nice jeans for the occasion!  So at the entrance there was a big mirror and ladies gathered around it to fix their hair and makeup after taking of their abaya, scarf, and niqab.  Little girls were dressed up in traditional clothes and sprayed us with scented lotion and gave us a rose as we walked in.  Then we went through the receiving line where we were welcomed by the ambassador’s wife, etc.  Music videos with Kuwaiti artists were playing, the videos had scenes from Kuwait which was really exciting to see and recognize since Kelsey and I had just been there in December!  There was just a lot of national pride!  Flags were placed on every seat and many of the women came in wearing red, green, and black (the national colors).  So we were sitting in the room for about an hour and a half as everyone was arriving, good people watching.  We were served tea and Arab coffee and sweets from ships that sailed around the room!  Kuwait has a proud shipping history, as we learned when we were there!  Then we were welcomed and feasting began!  HUMMUS!  Yay!  I will miss the Middle East and the hummus!  We sat with some Saudi women who were pretty interested in what we were doing there, being the only non Arabs in the bunch.  One woman kept asking me if I was there with my parents….again being confused for a child, gez!